Mid-August, and the sun was still merciless.

By this point it wasn’t just Jiang Ruoqiao who refused to step outside — even Lu Siyan, a child with seemingly inexhaustible energy, had no desire to leave the air-conditioned room.

He sighed blissfully, “It’s so much cooler here than at Dad’s place!”

Jiang Ruoqiao had never been inside Lu Yicheng’s home — she had only waited downstairs, and the building was visibly old.

“Does Lu Yicheng not have air conditioning?” she asked.

“He does,” Lu Siyan sighed like a little adult. “But it’s not as cool as here.”

Jiang Ruoqiao said nothing to that. Lu Yicheng was already being remarkably responsible — she had to appreciate that she’d been fortunate enough to encounter him. Any other person at twenty years old — would they be even half as dependable? In a situation this chaotic, Lu Yicheng had managed to hold everything together, giving the child a place to live, making sure he was neither cold nor hungry. If the child had ended up with her, she was fairly certain she would have done a worse job.

Lu Siyan was accustomed to afternoon naps. Before one o’clock, he was already drowsy, his big eyes slowly losing focus, his little head drooping and nodding like a baby chick pecking at grain. Jiang Ruoqiao found him utterly adorable. She let him lie down on the couch, then went upstairs to get a thin blanket. When she came back down, the child had already curled up and fallen asleep.

She tucked the blanket around him and crouched beside him, studying him carefully.

At this point, she couldn’t say she had deep feelings for him. But she also felt nothing toward him the way she might feel toward any other child. There was a little affection — and more than that, there was fear.

Fear that he would bring her endless, unstoppable trouble.

And yet, strangely, while the affection grew a little with each passing day, the fear stayed exactly the same — neither more nor less than before.

Perhaps one day the affection would outgrow the fear.

Lu Siyan was a strikingly handsome child.

She imagined he must have been adorable as a baby and toddler. Jiang Ruoqiao leaned in close and noticed that his eyelashes were long and curled — perfect for a mascara advertisement. His features were neat and well-defined, almost impossible to find fault with. His hair had the same natural curl as hers, his double eyelids looked just like hers, and he had the same little dimple near the corner of his mouth.

What did he inherit from Lu Yicheng?

Probably the nose and the mouth, she decided.

After studying him for a few minutes, sleepiness began to creep over Jiang Ruoqiao as well. She went upstairs to her room to nap. The loft design meant her room wasn’t fully enclosed — standing at the edge of the bed, she could look straight down into the living room below. If Lu Siyan woke up, he would come find her.

So mother and son rested, one upstairs and one below, each sleeping soundly.

Summer was made for air conditioning.

Out of habit, Jiang Ruoqiao always put her phone on silent before sleeping. She didn’t want anyone disturbing her rest — no exceptions.

Lu Yicheng left his student’s home at two forty-five.

The student’s parents had insisted on giving him a large watermelon — supposedly grown by the child’s grandparents, and chosen as the sweetest one they had. Unable to decline graciously, Lu Yicheng carried the large watermelon into the subway station. It was heavy, perhaps around ten kilograms. Fortunately, there was a subway exit near Jiang Ruoqiao’s apartment building.

Just past three in the afternoon, the sun was scorching the earth.

Few pedestrians were out. Lu Yicheng strode quickly with the watermelon until he entered the apartment building. But then, waiting in the elevator, it suddenly occurred to him: was it too presumptuous to come straight up and collect the child like this?

What if they were still sleeping?

That morning he had brought Lu Siyan over because she had sent a message telling him to come straight up. She hadn’t said anything about him being able to do the same when picking the child up.

Out of his naturally cautious temperament, Lu Yicheng stepped off the elevator but didn’t go directly to her unit. Instead, he sent a text: 【Are you awake? Should I come straight up to get Siyan, or will you bring him down?】

Ten minutes passed with no reply.

She was probably still asleep, he guessed.

Should he wake them? Or just let it go?

Lu Yicheng thought it over, then carried the large watermelon to the stairwell door in the emergency exit corridor and sat down. It was a bit stuffy, but a calm mind was its own coolness — he took out his phone and started doing his daily vocabulary practice.

Throughout his life, Lu Yicheng had never wasted a single moment.

He knew he wasn’t a genius.

He also knew that his circumstances were not as warm and comfortable as other people’s, and precisely because of that, he worked harder than anyone — studying hard, living hard.

Around four o’clock, Jiang Ruoqiao woke up first.

After lying still for a moment to fully come to, she fished her phone out from under her pillow, pressed the screen on with bleary eyes, and saw Lu Yicheng’s text.

She replied casually: 【You’re here? Where are you?】

Lu Yicheng replied instantly: 【Outside the apartment building.】

He had originally been about to reply “right at the door” or “in the emergency stairwell.”

But after running it through his head, he feared she might feel intruded upon. To this day, he still didn’t know how to calibrate the boundaries of their relationship. When she had been Jiang Yan’s girlfriend, they had all eaten together a few times, but back then, saying nothing at all was perfectly fine. Now? There was a child between them — there was no way to avoid communication and interaction. But outside of this one child, there was absolutely nothing else between them. And even this child hadn’t been born from the current versions of them — she was still Jiang Yan’s girlfriend, and he was Jiang Yan’s classmate, roommate, and friend.

This was an impossibly difficult equation.

So difficult that even Lu Yicheng couldn’t find a way to solve it.

The only option was to tread carefully.

If she hadn’t invited him up, he shouldn’t be here. And even though he was here, he absolutely shouldn’t enter the apartment. Sitting here in the emergency stairwell like this — if she found out, would she think he was some kind of creep?

All this while Lu Yicheng was running through a dozen different arguments in his head like a true top student, but Jiang Ruoqiao had only one request: 【That’s convenient then — there’s a convenience store near the apartment entrance. Can you grab me a pack of mosquito repellent tablets? Thanks.】

Lu Yicheng: “…”

He typed back: 【Sure.】

And now he had a problem.

This watermelon was genuinely heavy. If he left it here, would someone just help themselves to it?

So that was how it went — he picked the watermelon back up and headed downstairs. The heat outside at four o’clock was still brutal. He walked briskly, made it to the convenience store, bought the mosquito repellent tablets, and then hauled everything back to the apartment building.

From the lobby, Lu Yicheng sent another message: 【Should I come up, or will you come down?】

Jiang Ruoqiao stared at her phone.

Unbelievable.

Truly unbelievable.

What was wrong with this man? Why was he being so fussy about everything?

He had come up at noon just fine — had he somehow forgotten the unit number?

【Up.】

She had things she wanted to ask him anyway.

Lu Yicheng stepped into the elevator, pressed the floor button, arrived at her door, and knocked. Jiang Ruoqiao answered. Inside, little Lu Siyan had just woken from his nap, still a bit grumpy from sleep, sitting on the couch nibbling something and staring into space.

Jiang Ruoqiao’s attention was immediately drawn to the enormous watermelon. “That’s…”

“From a student’s family,” Lu Yicheng explained.

He added, “It’s very sweet. Would you like some? I could split it with you.”

Jiang Ruoqiao waved it off. “Thanks, but I don’t eat watermelon.”

Lu Yicheng didn’t press. He didn’t crane his neck to peer inside — that was basic courtesy. Jiang Ruoqiao leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. “Not in a rush?”

“No, not in a rush.”

“Then come in — I have something I want to ask you.”

Lu Yicheng: “…”

He thought about it. “I’ll just stand in the doorway.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “…Fine.”

There wasn’t much foot traffic in the hallway at the moment anyway. She looked at him — there was a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead — and simply swung the door fully open. The cool air rushed out eagerly, washing over Lu Yicheng, and he let out an almost imperceptible breath of relief.

Summer truly was something you survived with air conditioning.

“What is it?” he asked.

Jiang Ruoqiao was considerate enough. “Hold on a second.” She turned back into the apartment, said something to Lu Siyan, then went to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of cold mineral water. She brought it to the doorway and held it out to him, the condensation already forming on the outside. “Here, drink this. It’s only mineral water in the fridge, I’m afraid.”

Lu Yicheng hesitated for a few seconds, then accepted it. “Thank you.”

He looked slender, but his build was actually quite solid, and he was stronger than he appeared — he twisted off the bottle cap with no effort whatsoever.

“Siyan told me today that you played a game yesterday.”

Lu Yicheng had barely swallowed a mouthful before he heard this, nearly choked on it, and started coughing — his face went red.

Seeing his reaction, Jiang Ruoqiao knew everything she needed to know. “Looks like there really is something to feel guilty about.”

Lu Yicheng finally steadied himself, quickly capped the bottle, and stopped drinking altogether.

“Were you playing with Jiang Yan and the others yesterday?” Jiang Ruoqiao asked. “So Jiang Yan really did bring a girl along?”

If he had known she was going to ask this, Lu Yicheng would never have come upstairs.

Now he was stuck.

Lu Yicheng went quiet for a few seconds, then answered honestly: “Yes.”

Jiang Ruoqiao kept her expression perfectly even. “He said she was his little sister?”

“Mm.”

Jiang Ruoqiao smiled. “I’ve never heard him mention having any sister. Lu Yicheng, just tell me straight — I would have dropped it if I hadn’t known anything. But I already know something, so there’s no real reason for you to cover for him.”

“This isn’t something I should be telling you,” Lu Yicheng said.

“You mean he should come tell me himself — and do you think he actually will?” Jiang Ruoqiao had no choice but to deploy her trump card. “I know you boys are loyal to each other, always covering for each other. But what about our relationship? Are you really happy to just watch—” she paused, swallowing the words, “—Lu Siyan’s mother get kept in the dark? If he’s cheating on me, do I have to be the absolute last one to find out?”

Lu Yicheng: “…”

Jiang Ruoqiao regretted it the moment she said it.

Why did she have to bring that up? She would have preferred Lu Yicheng to forget forever that she was any kind of future wife to him — never to think of it again.

“It’s not cheating,” Lu Yicheng said. “Jiang Yan isn’t that kind of person. He said she’s his little sister.”

“A younger cousin on his father’s side?”

Lu Yicheng didn’t answer.

“A cousin on his mother’s side?”

Still nothing.

Jiang Ruoqiao was exasperated. “Not a blood sister, not a paternal cousin, not a maternal cousin — so what, is he one of those guys who goes around collecting ‘little sisters’?”

If Lu Yicheng were only Jiang Yan’s friend, Jiang Ruoqiao would never have said any of this. But Lu Yicheng wasn’t just Jiang Yan’s roommate and friend. In a certain sense, they were tied together on the same rope — so there was no point in hiding her true feelings.

Jiang Ruoqiao smiled. “You men do seem to have a real fondness for collecting little sisters, don’t you?”

Lu Yicheng looked at her. “…”

That was a rather broad sweep.

But he still said nothing — there was nothing to defend or argue.

She was angry right now because of Jiang Yan.

His words, in the end, weren’t the ones that mattered.

—